Custom DIY 3 Tiered Couch End Table

9 Materials
Sometimes when you have a small house or just an awkward spot you know needs a piece of furniture but, you'll never find the size, look, and/or the price you want, you need to get creative and just make it yourself.

That's how I felt about the spot next to our couch. It's a bunch of oversized chairs pushed together and the one side of the couch by the door used to be empty and it has a really tall side to it. I'd wanted to build something to fill the space and more importantly to put drinks or remotes, snacks, and the like on. Then one day, Joe says he'll make it. Awesome! To see the complete tutorial, visit ambientwares.com
I found a box filled with these handmade dividers along with some mid-century styled legs some time ago so these were used as the shelf spacers. We've got quite a few leftovers too.
Joe bought a piece of 1x8x96 piece of pine. Allowing him to get 3 – 32” long shelves out of it.
He cut the pieces, rounded the corners, and sanded.
Holes were necessary in the corners of each shelf for the divider dowels to fit into. The middle and bottom shelves will have holes drilled all the way through. The top will only need to be drilled in just enough for the dowel to fit but, not go all the way through.
Here's a test fit and it's lookin' gooooood.


Filling the holes with putty and sanding came next in preparation for painting and the dividers were stained.
Joe had created some atomic designs in order to practice using polycrilic as glue on our DIY plant stands. Those were small and we used our laser printer on regular sized copy paper.


He's going to use the same design here on top of each shelf and it needs to be much larger. He resized it to engineering sized dimensions in order to get it printed at our local Staples. For the polycrilic method (similar to the process of mod podge) we need to make sure it's laser printed and not inkjet.
He cut the engineering sized print down and it was ready to be glued to the top of each shelf. There ended up being wrinkles but, we're fine with it and it's such a busy design, you really can't tell unless your staring closely.
Once the poly had dried, the excess paper was trimmed off and the holes where the dowels went were carved out with a craft knife. Just an FYI, the tops of the shelves, even though covered with paper, were also painted white just so none of the yellowish pine and knots would show through the paper.
Now, it's just time to glue the spindles together. He'd put a bit of glue in and tap the dividers in with the mallet gently and using a rag to protect the shelf.


Then we had our "perfect for us" functional, decorative side table I've always wanted!
We are also offering up the lines and dots pattern for free over on the blog. It can be printed on any size up to an engineering sized print (2'x3'). Laser jet is recommend for the method of gluing but, ink jet is fine especially if framing in any way. Check it out!
Angie @ Ambient Wares
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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